The rumormill is at it again, this time – however – the topic revolves around GM’s organizational structure. Automotive News reports that GM will shake up its sales and marketing management in the U.S. as early as this week.
The Changes
For starters, Susan Docherty, vice president of sales, support, and marketing, will transfer her sales responsibilities to GM North America President Mark Reuss.
Moreover, GM will shake up its organizational structure of its four core brands by separating sales and marketing functions. In other words, Chevrolet, Cadillac, and Buick-GMC will each have a marketing leader that will report to Docherty, as well as a sales boss that will report to Reuss. Currently, the division heads are in charge of both functions.
The Stem
The reorganization stems from CEO Ed Whitacre’s desire to drastically increase sales. Whitacre is also said to be impatient in making sure consumers appreciate the high quality of General Motors vehicles (link).
When Whitacre was appointed interim CEO of The General back in December 2009, he said that Sales and Marketing teams would need to show results quickly. This overhaul appears to be in response to this goal. Since then, Whitacre has become permanent CEO of General Motors.
GM is said to have not yet finalized the divisional marketing and sales assignments. Cadillac chief Bryan Nesbitt was appointed to his position in August 2009 while Chevrolet’s Jim Campbell and Buick-GMC’s Brian Sweeney assumed their positions in December. GM spokesperson Jason Lair declined to comment on the changes. Click past the break for the vaunted GM Authority take.
[Source: Automotive News]The GM Authority Take
When GM last underwent a major executive shuffle (that was much bigger than this one), we were surprised to learn that Susan Docherty was assigned the three major roles of sales, support, and marketing. To us it seemed that was just too much to handle for one person.
When implemented, we expect this rumored configuration to takes a layer out of GM’s corporate structure, adding more responsibility and holding more people accountable. For instance, Reuss will now have a few months to try his magic at the sales position. If he doesn’t work out, the function will be reassigned to someone else.
This is even more apparent with the divisional marketing and managerial splits: individual executives will now be held accountable for their work in sales and marketing of each brand, instilling a “make-it-or-break-it” corporate culture.
We’ve known for some time that Whitacre is in the process of ingraining a culture of entrepreneurship and increased responsibility at GM. This move takes this one step further – and we welcome it wholeheartedly.
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